tough tale for mitt romney. why history predicts romney's polls right now give him only a narrow path of winning this election. plus, scoops and prediction chris: welcome back. history shows the power of presidential debates that catapulted kennedy from behind to ahead and onto victory. but to do that means getting a clean debate win. enough to change the polls. here's a tough pattern for mitt romney. when the polls have changed from september to october, the incumbent, not the challenger, usually is the one improving. the incumbent has seen polls go up an average of 4.6% while challengers have even only an average of 2.5% gains in october. and finally there's very low volatility or changing of minds in recent presidential races. there are only a few truly undecided voters out there. and voters tend to lock in early. specialy -- especially in recent years. if you look at elections since 1996, the polls have not moved much from mid september to election day. the average change has been about 3.7%. even when they get off the fence. a couple of problems for romney. one, the tendency of v

at home. mitt romney talked right to president obama, addressed him by name as mr. president. this was a very deliberative thing and deliberate thing that mitt romney did. no question that's something that he practiced. you know, we know he spent countless hours of practicing and preparing and it just sort of shows you that it's not just what people say or die say in these debates, it's how they say it. it's their body language. it's -- it's the way they look and absolutely kril to the overall feel. you know, i've been talking a lot and looking at this debate a lot, especially the morning after, and it's pretty clear there wasn't necessarily a win or loss because of a zinger, it was the overall feel that mitt romney was really present and president obama really wasn't. >> dana bash, i have your assignment from here going forwards and that is that 47% of folks asked said the debate did not influence their vote one way or another. so you have something to work with coming out of this. dana, thanks. >>> before the dust even settled from this first presidential debate, there were a lot

. both candidates right now, mitt romney and barack obama, no doubt, very nervous. i'm nervous, just looking at that picture. diane? >> okay, jake. i will see you tonight for the big event. and i want to bring in co-anchor of "good morning america" and anchor of "this week," my co-anchor tonight, george stephanopoulos. such a night after this long road. what are these two men thinking right now? >> reporter: probably exactly the same thing. tonight, don't take the other guy's bait. play your game. but there is more pressure on mitt romney tonight. you look at the polls right now, he's behind nationally, probably behind even more in the battleground statements. he needs a circuit breaker and he probably has to do something that gives people that say right now they're voting for the president, to give him a second look. >> give all of us a viewer's guide to what they are prepped to do. >> reporter: watch for almost every time mitt romney gets a question, he will try to turn it back to president obama's record. and make president obama bear responsibility for the economy right now, not

all right in these kinds of forums. clearly, what we know, is that these debates are important n. a race where the polls are putting the president ahead and not out of reach of mitt romney, it's the challenge who may have more to gain and lose. the president took a break from two days of debate rehearsals to visit one of his own campaign offices in las vegas. he brought pizza to the volunteers and made some phone calls to a couple of voters in the area and many were surprised to have the president of the united states on the other end of the phone. mitt romney picked up a big endorsement in the denver sports world, an icon of the denver broncos, the former quarterback john elway appeared with romney offering his support. when we spoke to two top officials from both campaigns, they said what is clear is that they're both trying to do what they can to reach out to voters who still have not made up their mind. >> it's really honing in on those policy specifics on the issues they care about and he in -- hope in the end that is what they change an undecided voter to a decided voter who w

right now. >> do you think mr. romney gained some ground from this? >> i think a tree is known by the fruit it bears. i think he has flip flop of a lot of the issues he has gone through this year as far as campaigning. this health care plan than he got in place in massachusetts is pretty much a very similar plan, the same layout as the obama health care plan, yet he wants to repeal its. he does not want to repeal -- reveal what he will place a plan with. just basically stating what he wants to do but he has not given us a specific plan. if you are going to take the american people somewhere, you have to let them know where you are going to take them. how he is going to create jobs, there are cuts that will have to be made and he is not informing the american people. >> thank you very much. marcia in harrison, arkansas on the republican line. >> i was calling just to say that you all did a really good job tonight and i think both the republican and democrats looked good. the president and mr. romney did a good job. >> who did a better job? >> i don't know, i think it is a brawl. they b

changes the dynamics? >> everyone, obviously, just about everyone, from right to left, says that romney won the debate. i gave you a full "a" and i give the president a "c" minus. there was a giant difference between their performance. everyone who was fair was impressed with how romney handled that from going to end. obama was stunned by how well romney was performing. he seemed almost to take a step back and tune out. >>neil: do you think he came in to it is on the clock, the president, to your point he didn't expect this, and he saw little risk in taking on mitt romney and even if romney did well it would not move the needle were and maybe that is what the folks are hoping today. will that be the case? >> they may be hoping that but as word gets out and as the coverage continues of the debate, more people would didn't watch the debate will hear about romney's performance. if they are not if romney or they are undecided they will be intrigued that he took on the president and did as well as they have now heard that he did or will hear they did. the criticism being made and you heard a

time. >> i think you're right. >>> the romney campaign certainly has a far different response to the new jobs numbers saying this is not what a recovery looks like. after claiming viktry in his first debate with president obama. let's bring in jim acosta. >> after a couple of days of positive reviews, mitt romney is running into political news that may be blunting some of that momentum. the jobs report is taking away a key line of attack for the gop contender for months. romney has said the president has failed to bring the nation's unemployment rate below 8% but romney found a new way to crunch numbers here in virginia. >> campaigning in virginia coal country, mitt romney tried to dig through the latest jobs number to make the case president obama has not pit pay dirt just yet. >> there were fewer new jobs created this month than last month. and the unemployment rate has come down very slowly, but it's come down nonetheless. the reason it's come down this year is primarily due to the fact that more and more people have just stopped looking for work. >> still, one of romney's key met

referendum on romney but now it's the reverse. right exactly i mean the whole strategy of the obama team has been to portray met romney as an unacceptable choice in various ways to portray him as an extremely rich man who doesn't understand ordinary people's problems to portray a must someone who has on acceptably unacceptable tax policies that really favor the rich excessively that strategy came undone to a certain extent last night and i think that romney did really play his hand pretty strongly in terms of both protesting that he did have a concern for so-called ordinary people and also suggesting that regular wrongly that his tax plan was more fair or less favoring the wealthy ok let's talk about just because if exactly nihilo me ask you it was a political malpractise for obama not to mention the forty seven percent. political malpractise was really strip it strange it was very surprising it was very very surprised and that has been the big issue for the past couple of weeks in this campaign and it played perfectly into the case that obama is trying to make that romney simply doesn't

saw with mitt romney in this debate right from the get go in his opening statement the first two minutes they had he really did grab ahold of of the emotional aspect of this whole economic. states by talking about real people and their problems and then he said wait into his five points here is my plan because he was really criticized that after the convention after republican convention on the fact that he didn't really make his platform clear and people didn't really know what he was going to be about his plan for i don't know. what was your reaction to the debate ok i mean romney came out really quite stellar i must admit. he did mitt romney seemed to really know what the debate was about what the challenge was for him the challenge for him was to take the fight not just to an incumbent president but to someone who he has been lagging in the polls quite significantly in the recent past so he needed to win that debate the thing that really shocked me more than anything else was just how past of almost. president obama appeared to be he really didn't take on mitt romney in any w

romney came across this strongly he was aggressive he was in control. listeners right now that although in this program are all none of us really have a dog in this fight. i am very much for romney so i may as well put that put that out there but the same time in a relatively objective analysis and i think it's important to you know disclosure biases before you give an analysis of people view is currently understand where you're coming from but looking at it really objectively i was surprised because i thought romney would have a pretty difficult time as he has thus far connecting with voters. he's not necessarily a charismatic guy but you don't need to be charismatic in order to connect with voters. and we've seen here in france is far from charismatic and he connected with voters in the last election here and ended up winning stephen harper in canada again not at all charismatic it's not a word you so say it was stephen harper but again he managed to connect with them on a very important point and i think that's what we saw with mitt romney in this debate right from the get g

write off half the electorate at moochers and cheaters. that's put romney on the defensive right when he was hoping to close the deal. >> this is a campaign about the 100%. >> reporter: campaigns always have slogans and statistics. >> the 53% or the 47%. >> reporter: but this year, instead of hope or change or even experience, it's a math lesson. >> 1% of the 99%. >> reporter: the statistics are the slogan. >> do you want four more years with unemployment above 8%? >> reporter: both candidates are playing the percentages. >> i think everybody tries to get their points made in quick, easy, short, memorable sound bites and percentages help do that. >> reporter: challenger trying to paint the incumbent as mr. 8.2%. >> people are trapped in a bad economy. >> reporter: the incumbent, trying to paint the challenger as mr. 47%. >> i'm barack obama, and i approve this message. >> reporter: fat cat from the 1% who paid just 14% in his taxes. who you like in this final jeopardy round probably depends on which percent your in. do you even know? well, unless you earn more than $380,000 a yea

romney sucks at this. >> i think you will see the numbers start to move right back in the other direction. >> in whole race will be turned upside down come thursday morning. >> what are you doing, christi? >> for god's sake if romney fails to meet those heavy expectations he will lose the general election creating chaos in the republican party and leave out 2016 -- oh! >> the jersey is strong in this one. >> so all these guys to have a mild familiarity with the english language and it is considered a win. can we hear from someone not affiliated with the campaigns, what their expectation might be? >> both men have a monumental undertaking for the first debate, one of them has to come off as nicer and less air began than he really is and the other has to be zero more normal and lestrange than he really is. >> jon: then how did we end up with these two idiots? look, we are not looking for coherent ideology, americans are just looking for assurance the next president isn't going to be a weirdo. who thinks she better than us. how exactly will romney counter the idea that he is awkwar

virginia and the white house announced -- and mitt romney is slated to deliver a major foreign policy address at the virginia military snout. >> a federal judge said the transit system must allow and to equate muslim radicals with savages. they sued for the right to display the ads and they up in subway stations and must be displayed here no later than 5:00 p.m. on monday and we spoke to the attorney for the blogger who sued to put up the ad and he joined us by phone earlier tonight. >> in a civil society, if you object to speech, the response is not to engage in violence but more speech and we held the protection of the first amendment in the united states and the judge upheld that in a ruling today and that is the correct way to go. >> metro spokesman said that the metro will comply with the order and the ads will go up this weekend. >>> more turbulence for american airlines. it's pulling 48 of the 757s to make repairs. after several seats came loose mid-air on three different flights and three different days. fifty flights were cancelled, 34 today and anna coinman tells us t

, back to you. >>> this time we don't want to do it again soon. >> right. >> what feels like a developing pattern, one day after the debate. at least one of the candidates will be in virginia. governor mitt romney and his running mate are said to have appeared here in about 40 minutes. then tomorrow, president obama is scheduled to be in fairfax. we'll take a look at the day after that first debate. >> it's the first day of the rest of the presidential campaign. the denver debate in the mirror. they will hit the campaign trail in battleground states. >> how did dad do last night? [ cheering ] >> reporter: he made a surprise spot here at the action committee. the crowd and the candidates were clearly energized from what is widely viewed as the major debate victory. >> i know that this will be a close fought battle. >> reporter: at the campaign stop, the president took aim at some of romney's debate claims. >> when i got on to the stage, i met a very spirited fellow who claimed to be mitt romney. but you know it couldn't have been mitt romney, because they have are been running around the c

repatriate the money back to the u.s. the president is right that you get a benefit. mitt romney is right in the sense there is nothing the tax code specifically that gives them a deduction for taking things out of the country. >> so is anything going on right now, either in the free market, or in government incentives to start turning the outsourcing trend into an in sourcing trend, reversing that hemorrhage of jobs going overseas and start bringing them back. what is the true story going on right now? >> well, the most important thing is that companies recognize that the economic shifted. it was in 2001 that companies started to outsource to china because wages were only 58 cents an hour. they have grown a lot and the is us h u.s. has gotten more competitive. what the president has been doing is getting on the bully pulpit and making it clear to the country and the companies of the country that things have changed and they just shouldn't consider china as a default location for manufacturing. >> i want to drill down specifically on the manufacturing jobs now, because for those who don't kn

take their jobs out of the united states? >> well, both the president and mitt romney are both right the way they answered the question. the reality is we don't have a specific incentive to take jobs out of the u.s. but what happens is if you can move your taxable income to another jurisdiction that has a low tax rate, like china, you can pay less taxes in total as long as you don't repatriate the money back to the u.s. the president is right that you get a benefit. mitt romney is right in the sense there is nothing the tax code specifically that gives them a deduction for taking things out of the country. >> so is anything going on right now, either in the free market, or in government incentives to start turning the outsourcing trend into an in sourcing trend, reversing that hemorrhage of jobs going overseas and start bringing them back. what is the true story going on right now? >> well, the most important thing is that companies recognize that the economic shifted. it was in 2001 that companies started to outsource to china because wages were only 58 cents an hour. they have grow

this is negative for mitt romney. >> governor barbour, i want to put up a chart right now. it comes from the "new york times" after that 47% comment right here, you see it right there, look at how it opens up in that last week and a half, that was damaging? >> well, it may well end being damaging. the biggest thing that's damaging mitt romney, this campaign is all about process, it's about polling, campaign management. it's about everything but the issues. it's about everything but obama policies. and the failures of those policies. >> how does that turn that around? >> stay totally focused on the fact for most americans, you can't tell the difference between the recession and the recovery. in fact, since this department data came out this last month, the average american family lost $2,500 of income during the obama recovery. they only lost $1,500 worth of income during the recession. no wonder they don't think that the recession is over. >> donna, that's kind of astonishing. the national journal put it as president obama defying gravity. income is going down. yet the president is

enormous pressure on president obama and governor romney right now. we're asking debate watchers, those who watched the debate to the history books. tonight, just like we will after every upcoming debate, we're breaking it down, issue by issue. this means more talk from the candidate on a particular topic. looking at some of the totals, we'll show you what's going on. but, first, here are some of the highlights from the first presidential debate. >> what things would i cut from spending? first of all, i will eliminate all programs by this test. if they don't pass it. is the program so critical, it's worth boring money from china to pay for it? obama care is on my list. i apologize mr. president. jim, i'm sorry, i had stop the subsidy to pbs. i love big bird, like you too. but i won't keep on spending money to borrow money from china to pay for. i'll take programs that are currently good programs but could be run more efficiently at the state level and send them to state. and make government more efficient, cut back the number of employees, combine agencies and departments, cutbac

. president obama's looking off. mitt romney did it the right way. >> right way. >> he looked at the camera, looks you in the eye, tells you what he thinks. >> he wasn't being nice. >> no. >> the thing that is obama -- i hate to say, the politics of niceness, you're admitting your opponent has legitimate points. . it's not great in an american society where stylistic connection means you're willing to defend your point with a pointed passion but also to argue with the other guy. mitt romney was there saying i'm give nothing quarter. he admitted obama did something halfway right the rest of the time he was condescending. i have five sons, you might as well be the sixth, i'm going to tell you what you're doing wrong. there was no opposition, quite disturbing. >> governor romney seized moment to speak to independent swing voters in the swing states time after time. you can tell it was practiced, prepared, i know what this debate's. this will be the decisive part of the electorate. each time he spoke to that, those who can still be swayed, as my friend mack murphy says, 46%, 48% of the e

question mitt romney's in a zone. >> right. >> there is no question. but the president is now 14 hours after walking off the stage last night, he's holding his first post debate rally in denver sloane lake park. let's take a listen to the president. >> but it couldn't have been mitt romney because the real mitt romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts in favor of the wealthy, the fellow on stage last night said, he didn't know anything about that. the real mitt romney said we don't need any more teachers in our classrooms. but -- don't boo, vote. but the fellow on stage last night, he -- he loves teachers. can't get enough of them. the mitt romney we all know invested in companies that were called pioneers of outsourcing jobs to other countries. but the guy on stage last night, he said that he doesn't even know that there are such laws that encourage outsourcing. never heard of them. never heard of them. never heard of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. he said, if it's true, he must need a new accountant. now we know

remains up right. >> he is a buying napper, jon, buying napper. >> mitt romney, 90 minutes awake and up right means buying win for the camp. >> jon: well, i certainly imagine romney will accomplish that. >> barack obama can only count to 27. >> jon: all right. all right. >> mitt romney has never gone more than 17 minutes without blurting out the n word. >> jon: really? >> the n word! >> barack obama gets through this debate without pulling out his dong and swinging it around while yelling check out marine one! it will be a victory! >> if only mitt romney knew how to use a zipper he could zipper the name of one of his sons. >> jon: all right, guys, slow down. if mitt romney doesn't pass out. >> not likely but ifed happens, buying victory. >> jon: and if barack obama keeps his (bleep) in his pants >> i don't see that happening but fingers cross, that would be a huge, huge victory. >> jon: will help americans decide which one of these functional man children is best-equipped to bring america back to greatness. >> yep. >> jon: thank you so much, >> jon: thank you much! transparency,

. i are going to. make you. feel. culture is the same much as i can which of course he's right on it so here is a baby to give me the first direct encounter between president barack obama and republican challenger mitt romney left the incumbent looking like roadkill. sigrid lumber touring to mccurry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only on the dog. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. it's. heather and ran an antique store on weekends. my father was alive when i got married he really really really loved it he was comfortable with it. i think that was a huge fear for him he was afraid that i wouldn't find anyone. and when he met aaron he knew he knew that aaron loved me he got to walk me down the

. president obama will enter from the right. the governor from massachusetts, governor romney entering from the left. to give you an idea of the setting here, about 1,000 people inside this debate hall, when it starts. look behind the cameras tonight. we're inside a hockey arena that normally seats 8,000 but they've created this intimate setting as tens of millions watch from their living rooms tonight. when president obama and mitt romney walk onto that stage tonight, it will be the first time they've met face to face in four years. last time, during the presidential race in 2008, during those back-to-back democratic and republican presidential debates during the primaries when candidates from both sides were called on the stage, it was senator obama and governor romney talking. the president congratulated romney when he clinched the republican nomination and this moment in 2007, a labor day parade in 2007. >> good luck to you today. >> reporter: but tonight, they will shake hands in front of millions watching, before debating each other for the first time. in a format that is more fr

election right now. it's already over. >> is romney slightly ahead over the president that's a dramatic shift. shift. >> cenk: oops, is it panic time? we'll show you that segment in just a minute. you'll find out if its panic time or not. in the show we have more g.o.p. voter fraud, and you have to wonder if it makes sense banning people from voting. >> i served my time. i'm back. so why can't i vote? i live under the laws that they passed but i can't vote with regards to those laws and the people who passed them. >> cenk: and we have jon stewart versus bill o'reilly. debate of the century? >> i'm not giving up to anything. >> cenk: that's awesome. what lessons can we learn from that. that's on tonight's show. and we haven't even got to the insane republicans yet. they say you know what? the flavor was not so bad. we talk about how you should execute disobedient children, and he's not kidding. and on top of that we have not even gotten to the elbows of the day. that's something else. oh, it's a hell of a show. and it's go time. [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> romney: hope has not been a strategy.

just lay people off. i'm at a point now where, all right, we are buying because of romney's strength today. that was the imptous today, but there's a lot of risk to the upside moving beyond q3 after the earning season. we are just starting, by the way, with earning season starting next week. neil: i would guess, lori, you and melissa talk about the numbers starting to reverse, and that would be disruptive, and that normally is a harbor of not so fun things to come. >> the bar is low. not huge comparisons from this quarter to last year. again, the economy's been slow, and earnings held up, but they are nowhere near -- neil: what's that tell you? the bar is so low and people don't sink as much? >> absolutely. it's the new normal. again, we talk about this all the time. this is interesting example. see, target, reported a 2% sales increase the last month, it is an increase, not a decline. because of uncertainty they have, they are not willing to make big bets, and they said we're not going to report on a monthly basis because it's just -- there's too much going on. neil: saying that, bu

labor to its investors. mitt romney - tough on china? since when? i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios >>> mitt romney and his campaign team may need to stick to their game plan of delusion and deceit in order to win the white house because they have told us that you can't believe the jobs report when it contains good news and they have also determined that the polls they trashed that they then cited, only to trash again, are unfit for public consumption whenever they show that the president is in the lead. joining us now from minneapolis, anna marie cox of "the guardian" and in washington clarence page, a columnist for the chicago tribune. welcome to both of you. pew has just released a new poll that shows romney ahead by four points among likely voters. unlike many of those elsewhere, we actually accept polls. regard ltion of this finding, if bending the truth were a crime, it really did pay, did it not, for mr. romn

against mitt romney. >> right. professor reich, paul ryan is known for being an encyclopedia of numbers but can he effectively counter headlines like this one today, "gm to add 2,000 jobs in michigan"? if this race comes down to ohio and the auto rescue plays a major role there, that's a tough headline to counter for mr. ryan, isn't it? >> it certainly is. and what people in ohio and in the midwest generally know is the auto bailouts were critically important. ryan and romney said no to the auto bailouts and the president and the vice president said yes in the face of a lot of criticism and they have been proven right. paul ryan is an ideologue. he has a record and joe biden can pick on that record. joe biden can say to paul ryan, that $716 billion that you and romney keep on saying we are robbing from medicare, we are not robbing from medicare. we're actually extending the life of medicare. you, ryan, you use that 7$716 billion in your budget plan and yet you put it in there based upon you actually turning medicare into a voucher program. ryan has got to respond. ryan is a deta

to you what a conservative columnist for "new york times" said right after the debate. romney had his share of lines and the stinctions he drew between romney care and obama care and didn't say anything about helping the uninsured. how do you respond to that? is it time for romney to give more specifics? is he having a problem with that? >> easy to criticize both of them for not giving enough specifics. romney has a 59-point economic plan that most people have never looked at. i would say that is probably too specific. i think mitt romney should focus on saying things like, mr. president, we are, you seem to have a problem with profits, which my company made. but most americans have a problem with deficits, which you've rung up four consecutive trillion dollar deficits. they both have a ltle problem with details. but there is a big, i would strike a big contrast if i was mitt romney. i would put a working state on one side and a welfare state on the other side and i would say america would be much, much better if dollars were earned instead of dollars awarded. it is time to stop r

, right on, mitt romney. did he get points for honesty or getting points taken away clearly for not even caring about the question. >> so they all do this and they're all trained to do this. what's interesting about this clip is mitt romney's honesty where he say this is the philosophy i have. you know, henry kissinger used to come to press conferences and say, who has questions for my answers, and that's a very -- that's what people are coached to do. what's unusual is mitt romney actually ar titiculating that. >> when we sit around and watch and someone says, he dodged the question, do you care for the most part? >> from our experiments we find that for the most part viewers don't notice, and that's because the answers are usually similar enough to the questions and cognitively it's really hard to follow each logical piece of a response and then keep linking it back to the question. so as long as it doesn't feel incongruous, most people don't notice. it's because humans have a limited amount of attention and they need to direct it to the most important thing and in this case it's socia

the right, and so what's going to happen after the debate is that all the romney and obama forces come out in droves to tell you how brilliantly each side did while before the debate, up until now, they say each side is essentially an idiot. they can't debate, barely walk, talk, and chew gum at the same time. that's called lowering expectations. who can blame them? i built a career on it. this guy didn't have to do that. one of the most widely respected figures in washington. he is many say of national to denver himself. he could be in the presidential circle, senator john thune. good to see you, senator. >> good to see you and be with you as always. neil: i covered a few debates. we're going into them, each guy sells their guy to the closest thing as an idiot, and no matter how poorly he did, he's a genius. >> right. neil: what are we to derive from that? >> well, this has become, and i think it's partly fueled by the media -- neil: here we go, sorry. >> the expectations game, neil. i think both sides want to exceed examinations, obviously, and when they go into a debate, it's no

what she does. >> yes. right. >> on the likability issue, some are saying mitt romney leveled the playing field last night, he became likable, as likable as president obama. is that right? >> well, you know, i don't know. i don't know about that. i don't think his problem has been the question of likability. i think it's been related but different, empathy. whether he understands, cares about the problems, economic strains that middle class families are experiencing. he did make progress on that front. in particular, arguing that he had a plan. i thought the debate exposed what i believe has been the major blank spot, the hole in president obama's campaign agenda. he has given us very little sense of what he would do with a second term if the public gives him another four years. he was really almost silent on that question last night and only had energy, i thought, when he was attacking romney in the middle section of the debate over his budget, medicare and tax plans. other than that, i don't think people would come away with much of an idea of what president obama would give the

. you know, mitt romney got a big laugh. he seemed genuine. >> right. i think i talk toud about this the other day. mike deaver, the media adviser to ronald reagan, he once said these television events -- and make no mistake a debate is a television event -- 85% visual, 10% how you sound and 5% of what you actually say. leading up to the importance of, as you've been talking about, likability. i'm taken aback by how much more stiff president obama was than mitt romney. you played moments like that and throughout the debate, mitt romney seemed calm, in command of the facts, comfortable, made eye contact with the president. the president simply just looked uncomfortabl uncomfortable. >> and, roland, one of the boston papers had a headline that it was snore more years for obama. i mean, the reviews of his performance are harsh. >> absolutely. i think that it was lackluster, to some degree. i will disagree with will cain when he said mitt romney had a command of the facts. he had a command of what mitt thought actually were facts. you look at the fact checkers today. and so he's not doin

impact, romney would have to take risks and obama make mistakes. >> reporter: the risks for romney moving to the center in order to appeal to centrist voters risking setting off the right. still for for the ongoing ad war. >> people say romney should come in with zingers and try to make obama lose his cool. >> reporter: zingers make debate history. dan quail was comparing himself to jack kennedy. >> senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> but here's the punch line of that. who won the election? bush and quail. >> reporter: but staying cool under attack? >> here you go again. >> reporter: you get points. being too cool. >> if kitty dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer. >> no, i don't, bernard. >> reporter: his numbers dropped immediately after the seemingly unfeeling too cool answer. >> substance is more important, but the meaner counts. >> reporter: an impatient george bush checks his watch and suffers for it. >> people said, what, he doesn't think this is important enough to stick around another ten minutes? >> reporter: al gore

second thing to say is it wasn't so much the right, and there were people on the romney side trying to push it. it was the left. it was the left that went crazy on obama! they wanted a grudge match, a cage match. they wanted -- >> that's why even the obama campaign thinks they lost. >> yeah, that's the problem. >> when they come out tend with the spinners, it was all romney people. >> who knew that preparation with joy bearrest would have been a bad idea? spending all that time on the couch. obama had such a rough night that sandra fluke called him to see if he was doing okay. i thought that was pretty touching. i actually felt -- it's the worst possible feeling that you could have is to feel sorry for somebody and i felt like i was watching the washington generals playing the harlem globetrotters. that's a basketball reference. i wanted to make sure you knew that. but i bet at this point, romney's garbage man is voting for him. obama to me, he remained me of homer simpson rolling down the mountain and continually, no matter what he does, keeps hitting his head over and over and over a

be angry and mean, just like some on the right wanted romney to be angry and mean, i just think they need to be themselves. but president obama, i don't know whether he needs like a five-hour energy shot or something before hand. >> that's advisable. >> remember, the debate is below his pay grade. for the presidency too small a job for him. he wants to be -- he's a citizen of the world. >> let me ask you guys a question, do you believe that what happened last night, i'm going to say i'm wrong, you're right, so do you believe that was a game changer and now the election is all different? i don't think anybody changed their vote -- >> oh, i do. >> he got smoked, juan. here is the thing. opposition research, you have all this stuff in your back pocket ready to release. mitt romney he had the tape, they had the 47% tape. they reloosed it at the specific time. you know chicago, the campaign sitting this with all this research. when are we going to send some stuff out. there is going to be some chicago style thug politics coming. >> are you nervous? >> i think by monday morning, we're goin

first time i saw him come out and without cause, go right into attacking mitt romney. clearly, trying to rebound from what some considered a

race or romney's side pushing them into the margin of error that right now has them on the losing end. and those campaigns are almost word-for-word, brian, said the exact same thing. tomorrow, we're talking to independents. >> tom fitzgerald tonight. the debate airs tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. i'll have a completianup on the news edge at 10 and the news edge at 11. >>> another big story tonight, today marks 10 years since the d.c. sniper's terrorized our region. ten people were killed during a three-week shooting spree. three people were shot and survived. mohammad and malvo were captured and convicted. mohammad executed in 2009, and malvo serving a life sentence and paul paul wagner and i covered the attacks extensively and we'll talk about some new developments and it's well- covered you smoke with charles moose. i spoke with him about three years or so ago and found a different person then than during the attacks and during his tenure here. you learned interestingfas on the caprice that no one tacked about. he. >> reporter: he was revealing, brian, opening up to me and was more relaxed t